FC KTP: The Internship
2015 became the year I entered the highest league of Finnish football: Veikkausliiga the first time. Before finding the internship position, I spent roughly 5 months cold-emailing to football clubs from all over the world. I was very close to doing my internship at FC Nordsjælland (a Danish football club performing at the highest tier). But that one did not work out in the end. Thus, after sending over 100 emails, I was finally lucky to be welcomed by FC KTP from Kotka, Finland. The club has just entered Veikkausliiga that year and the new CEO was recently hired. I called him by phone. After a short talk, I was invited for a follow-up in-person meeting, which led to my first official internship. For the second time since my first experience in football, I got a chance to work closely with the CEO of a professional football club. This time, however, I had well-defined tasks, which evolved with the time I spend in the club. Initially, I focused on organizing the home games of FC KTP's first team. My main responsibility within match days was creating mini-games between players of the junior academy of FC KTP during half times of the first team's matches. A few months later, the head coach of the first team offered me a chance to do analyses of the upcoming opponents. That is how I have first time become the Opposition Scout / Match Analyst. To be completely fair, I had no knowledge of football analytics at that time. Thus, that internship brought me an opportunity to watch football from a professional perspective. Analyzing games by opponents of FC KTP taught me a lot about the game principles, such as build-ups, defensive blocks, etc.
How I found my thesis topic
My original tasks shifted completely towards the second part of the internship. Since July is a "dead month" in Finnish football (few games), I had a lot of time to make a different set of tasks. In particular, my responsibilities turned out to be website development and social media marketing. Working with the FC KTP club's website, I got the first professional touch of web development, changing the layout for the page with the first team's players' profiles. That experience turned out to be very handy when I started coding my websites, including the one you are now visiting. Once the games restarted after the July break, I continued with social media activities during the first team's games. That's how I got in close connection with spectators and fans of FC KTP. Once I've got an incredible experience traveling with FC KTP fans to Helsinki to watch the game against HJK (the biggest Finnish football team). The experience of collaborating with football fans and spectators generated an interest in me in the topic of "fans engagement". While finalizing my internship with FC KTP, we have agreed with the CEO of the club that I will make my Bachelor's thesis about FC KTP's spectators. The final version of my thesis title became: "Factors Affecting Customer Intention to Visit a Football Event: Case FC KTP". My full thesis is available online from:
Liaison Officer for Russia U-21 Team
At the very end of my internship, there was a very special event happening. The Russian U21 team arrived at Kotka to play against the Finnish U21 team. FC KTP happened to be involved in organizing that game. As the intern, I got a chance to perform, as the Liaison Officer for Russian National Team under 21 years old. Big luck! My role was to travel with the team and help them with all organizational matters. Starting from meeting the team at the airport, I was impressed by the squad of that team. Many of these players are currently performing at the highest level. I could see with my own eyes how they train, eat, and travel. I could hear their conversations. Being part of this environment even for a few days provoked lots of thoughts and ideas. For instance, when one of the players got injured, I could see the process of the player calling his club's doctor and sports director, as well as agent, informing them about the injury. Listening to conversations, I could hear how many injuries players have. What impressed me the most, was the phrase that "there was no player in the team without a metal in their body".
